Replacing a neck pickup with a Hot Rails

[bavonda]

I am interested in replacing the Neck single coil in my MIM Fat Strat with a Hot Rails. The wiring schematic from SD is different from the wiring of the stock Fender humbucker present in the bridge position. Can you explain to me why (is the color coding of manufacturer different??) More importantly, should I wire the Hot Rails according to SD or should I wire similarly to the Fender Humbucker already in the guitar bridge position?

[sumgai]

bavonda,

Hi, and welcome to the NutzHouse! ;D

In case you don't yet know it, there are no industry guidelines for what color wire to use on pickups, so there is a great variety out there. For that reason, it's almost always best to use the diagram produced by the pickup's manufacturer, at least in the beginning. Unless warned by others that there's a mistake on that company's drawing (fortunately there are very few of them), you should be able to make things work with the least amount of hassle by following that design.

After that, if things don't sound the way you want, then you can experiment. ;D

HTH


sumgai

[clr]

I have the hotrails in the bridge position, and it's awesome on distortion, but really goes down the drain on clean. Sounds like the tone knob is rolled to 0. Thats just in my opinion...onward

What way did you want to wire the pups?

[ChrisK]

The GuitarNuts2 guide to pickup wiring.


I've heard that rolling back on the volume a little can help clean up a Hot Rails.

Also, you might consider using a Cool Rails in the neck instead.

[clr]

Keep in mind, that there are 5 wires, 1 of them being bare which is connected to ground with green.